Prior to Darryl's arrival in 2002, this franchise was an embarrassment, resigned to being a mediocre club that was content to miss the playoffs year after year. The dome could draw crowds of 14,000 on a typical game day, the nose bleed seats had to be closed in order to get NHL subsidies, and ticket drives were required to keep this franchise within the city.
Sutter rebuilt this franchise. He changed the loser culture, built an identity based on western Canadian hockey, overhauled the team's abysmal scouting division and built a team the city could be proud of.
In his full four seasons as head coach he delivered two division titles, three playoff appearances, two seconds round appearances, one conference finals appearance and one cup final appearance. As a GM he built three cup contending iterations (03-04, 05-06, and 09-10) without relying tanking for top-5 draft picks, retained all the clubs core players through their prime years, and attracted sought after UFAs to this small market franchise.
Best of luck Darryl. Thank you for the memories.
Last edited by GullFoss; 05-02-2023 at 12:27 AM.
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